Alpha Male Incorporated: Take Control (22 page)

Anyway, she wasn’t in any danger, so why was he acting so protective of her every move? Raya made her way further down the trail away from the crowd of other runners and speed walkers. In the distance, she spotted a park bench. She decided it would be the perfect place for her to stop and do her stretches.

Stopping in front of the bench, she began her cool down routine, but about ten minutes into it Raya got an eerie feeling someone was watching her. She stopped stretching and looked around, but she only noticed a few other joggers who were lost in their own exercises. She pulled the Hello Kitty ear buds out of her ears, hoping she would hear any odd noises, but nothing out of the ordinary caught her attention.

However, a sense of urgency hit her to get back towards the more populated area of the park. Skipping the rest of her cool down routine, Raya turned and ran back in the opposite direction.

****

Easing out from behind a tree near the park bench where Raya had stood, Cordelia watched Thorsten’s mate as she got closer to a group of other runners. She loathed the fact he ended things with them because of her. She possessed no powers in that tiny frame of hers.

How could she possibly satisfy a powerful and influential vampire as Thorsten Irizarry? All of the Irizarry vampires were rich beyond belief and she had been lucky enough to have one of them in her bed for years until that little bitch with her stupid birthmark came along.

She was Cordelia J’adore, one of the most desired females in the vampire world. No man left her bed until she was good and ready. So, Thorsten could take his threats and toss them to the side. The same way she was going to do with his new love conquest. One day, Raya would be in his arms and in the next she would be out of their lives forever.

Her eyes zoned in on her enemy and she wondered, why shouldn’t her plans start now?

With a snap of her fingers, Cordelia made a branch fall into Raya’s path, watching with sheer pleasure as Thorsten’s precious mate tripped over it and fell to the ground and grabbed her ankle, crying out in pain.

Perfect
. Smiling to herself, Cordelia turned back into the thickness of the trees before disappearing from sight.

“Thorsten, put me down. I can walk just fine. I swear you don’t need to carry me,” Raya complained, hitting him on the shoulder as he carried her into his bedroom. Visions of having her in his bed had filled his mind for weeks now, but this wasn’t how he believed it would happen.

“No, I’m going to take care of you. I wouldn’t have even known you’d gotten hurt if Jax hadn’t called me from the emergency room. Why didn’t you call me?” he asked, placing Raya gently down on his bed. “I would have dropped everything at work and come to you.”

“I didn’t see any reason to call you,” she answered. “I just tripped over a branch on my morning jog. I still don’t see how I missed it lying there. It was like it came out of nowhere. I guess I should have been paying better attention to where I was going, but my mind was on other things.”

Being careful of her sprained ankle, Thorsten joined Raya on the bed. His senses kicked in on more going on than she was telling him. He had to get to the bottom of why she didn’t want his help.

If she wanted to keep things a secret from him, it wasn’t a good sign for their relationship. He gently tried to touch her brain to read her mind, but it was too cloudy from the painkillers the hospital gave her. He couldn’t pick up on anything, so he would just have to coax it out of her.

“Tell me about it. I might be able to help you figure it out.”

“I’m probably making something out of nothing,” she answered, glancing away.

Reaching out, he placed his hand on top of his mate’s, brushing his thumb over the top. “Look at me,” he coaxed in a gentle voice. Asking Raya to open up instead of demanding it was new for him, so he hoped he was doing it right.

A woman having her own independence from him in the past was very important. He didn’t want a female relying on him for anything. But, Raya’s lack of interest in him hurt deeper than he could put into words. Since he had gotten lucky enough to find her, the main purpose in his life was making her fall in love with him.

“Baby, please look at me and tell me what scared you on your run this morning.”

Turning her head, she stole a slanted look in his direction. “I never said I was scared of anything.”

Thorsten moved his hand off hers and cupped her chin in his palm. “Sweetheart, I apologize. You didn’t say a word about being frightened. So, care to tell me what bothered you instead?” he asked.

Covering his hand with hers, she moved it off her face. Instantly, he wanted to put it back but held off. Everything with her was still fresh and if he pushed too hard she might bolt.

“I was running like I do every day and today I went past my usual stopping point for some reason to clear my head. There were a lot of things I was trying to make sense of.”

He didn’t have to be told those “things” were about him. The expression on Raya’s beautiful face said it all without the words, so he let her continue.

“I stopped at a bench to stretch. I had only been there a few minutes when I got the weirdest feeling that I was being watched. I looked around, but I didn’t see anyone. For a minute, I thought about going towards the woods to see if I could see anyone.”

“No,” Thorsten shouted, making Raya flinch and slide away from him on the bed. “Don’t you ever go looking for anyone in the woods. If you hear someone calling you from a dark, deserted place move away. Do you understand me?”

“Why are you getting so upset over nothing?” Raya asked. “No one was there.”

Wrapping his hand around her arm, he gently eased Raya back to his body. Someone had been out there watching his woman. Nothing she felt was her imagination. Cordelia had been there, up to her games. What if she had lured Raya into the woods? He wouldn’t have ever laid his eyes on her again.

Now, he knew how Jax felt about Sahara when her life was in danger. But, Raya’s threat was more vicious because Cordelia would have killed her in seconds and tossed her body to the side like a piece of trash.

“Promise me. You won’t go out investigating any strange sounds on your own.”

“Thorsten, you aren’t the boss of me, and let go of my arm so I can leave.”

He leaned towards Raya, lowering his voice. “Calm down. I’ll release you, but you aren’t going anywhere tonight.”

“I can go—”

“I’m not finished.” Thorsten gave her a stern look and she snapped her mouth closed.

Nodding, he took his hand off her arm. “Good. You finally understand who is in control. I don’t want to hear any more from you for the rest of the night. I’m going to fix you a bath then something to eat. Afterwards, you’re going to take a pain pill and then get some rest.”

He got up off the bed and left Raya there staring after him as he made his way into the bathroom directly across from the bed.

****

Sitting on the bed, Raya watched in stunned silence as the bathroom door closed behind Thorsten’s wide back. She glanced over at the bedroom door as thoughts of leaving while he was in there filled her head, but how would she get home? Thorsten lived miles from her house. Plus, he would be back out here on her before she even made it halfway across the room.

Moving her leg, she winced as a throbbing started in her ankle. As much as she wanted to leave she wouldn’t be able to do it. She was stuck here, at least for the night, because of her ankle. She turned over her wrist. She brushed her thumb over the apple-shaped mark. She had wondered why she had this on her inner wrist. Even a few classmates asked her about it, but she couldn’t give them an answer.

Thank God, she hadn’t known the truth back then because she might have not handled it well. Absolutely nothing about this was settling inside of her head.

Ever since Thorsten came into her life she had heard voices in her bedroom. Somehow, Thorsten found different ways to be in her face every chance he got. She wouldn’t think about how his mouth and hands made her body explode over this past week.

“Your bath is ready,” he suddenly said next to her, making her jump.

Her gaze shot over to Thorsten, who was watching her with those sexy ever changing eyes of his. “I didn’t hear you come back out the door,” she said.

“You didn’t hear the door because it wasn’t used,” Thorsten answered. “Now, let’s get you undressed and into your bath before the water gets cold.” His hand reached for her shirt but she knocked it away.

“I can undress myself. Why don’t you go downstairs and fix my food? I can make it to the bathroom all by myself.”

Thorsten moved back and then snapped his fingers. Raya gasped when she glanced down, noticing every single stitch of her clothing was gone. “How did you do that?” she asked, looking around for something to wear, but Thorsten picked her up into his arms.

“You have no clue of my abilities. I can do a lot of things, but I chose not to overwhelm you with them. But, don’t ever try to hide your body from me. I want to see every beautiful inch of it.”

He planted a hard kiss on her mouth then raised his head. “You have no idea how hard it is for me to hold back, but you aren’t ready for me to take you. However, when the time does come, nothing is going to stand in my way of making you mine forever.”

“Why are you doing all of this for me?” Raya asked, trying to forget she was totally naked while Thorsten was still fully clothed.

“Because, it’s the first step at winning your heart and then your love, so you’ll accept me as yours forever,” Thorsten answered before vanishing with her into the bathroom.

Sitting on the edge of the bed a few hours later, a pair of watchful eyes raked over the sleeping figure tucked safely into his bed. Thorsten listened to the steady beat of Raya’s heart after finally willing her into a deep sleep with his gentle mental coaxing.

Her will to stay awake and fight him was strong. He almost didn’t think she would ever drift off into a restful slumber that her body needed to heal. She was so determined to find ways to leave his side. She didn’t understand she was right where she needed to be, with him.

His hand caressed the black hair spread out across the whiteness of his pillow, then eased down to trace the fullness of her bottom lower lip. He dropped his hand, groaning low in his throat. Raya had no idea how fast she had grown to mean something to him.

She had found a way to bring a light into the eternal darkness of his heart. How could he think about being alone now after finding her? She sated his hunger in ways no other woman had. With all of her innocence and determination to force him out of her world, he only wanted to fight harder to stay right where he was. There would be no other woman for him.

He wanted her.

He needed her.

More than any hedge fund or to prove how right he was to Jax and Zander, all he desired was for Raya to share a secret glance with him the same way his cousins’ women did with them. He had waited too long for a mate. He clearly remembered laughing at the notion Jax had found a
Unique
woman with Sahara, but now all of his taunting had come back to slap him in the face.

For centuries, he lived the fast life by seducing any willing woman and leaving her bed during the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye. He wasn’t going to lie to himself about his past. He hadn’t cared about their feelings. Once he left their warm beds none of them crossed his mind again.

Standing up, he glanced down at Raya’s still sleeping form. With trembling fingers, he brushed them across her mouth again, then set safeguards against Cordelia trying to enter his home while he was gone. She had gotten near Raya and injured her.

Raya’s sprained ankle was only a warning because Cordelia could have aimed the branch at his mate’s head. Her powers were strong and deadly, but his were from the elders. Jax and Zander didn’t use theirs unless it was absolutely necessary.

However, his ex-lover had crossed the line and her death was coming, because his warnings weren’t taken seriously. Taking a feel of the room, he made sure everything was as he wanted before disappearing from his home.

****

The pounding of the music vibrated around Thorsten’s tall body as he stalked through the crowd of human and non-humans dancing without an inch separating their half-clothed bodies. His eyes searched around the couples for the intended person he came here to see.

Club V was an underground party hangout for mortals who wanted to experience being with a vampire without getting turned into one. He would have never known about this place if Cordelia hadn’t brought him here with her. Half the time, professional people filled the building to capacity to leave their ordinary, boring lives behind for a few hours of mindless sex and fun.

Cordelia loved making an appearance here so she could push male humans as far as she could without killing them. However, she made sure to leave her mark as a reminder. She wasn’t an entertainment act for them to talk about over the water cooler the next day at work.

He continued making his way across dance floor until he finally spotted Cordelia off in the corner with some guy. He could already tell she was in full control of the situation. In the blink of an eye, he was standing beside her. He didn’t have to announce his presence. He knew she felt it the moment he came inside the nightclub.

“Thorsten, what a nice surprise,” she purred without glancing in his direction. “Give me a minute to deal with Eric and I’ll be right with you.”
Thorsten looked at the guy, noticing how glazed over his dull brown eyes were. Cordelia had done something to the poor man. Eric wasn’t even aware of anything going on around him.

“No, you’re coming with me now.” Wrapping his hand around her bare arm, Thorsten dragged Cordelia through the club and out the back door into the pitch, black night.

“Lover, I knew you still—” Cordelia choked on the rest of her sentence.

Tightening his hand round her slim neck, he held her body up in front of him. The punishment wouldn’t kill her but it would show Cordelia he meant to go through with his promises to hurt her.